Wausa girls track team claims gold at O’Neill meet
O’NEILL — The Wausa track team continues to impress early on in the campaign in the field as the O’Neill invite found out first-hand last Thursday.
The girls won another meet with a score of 114 points to outdistance runner up Humphrey St. Francis’ 97-point tally.
The Vikings boys also didn’t fare badly as they finished second with 94 points just five behind champions Humphrey St. Francis despite competing with only nine athletes.
“We had kids stepping up all around,” Wausa head coach Greg Conn said. “Despite the conditions, our kids just keep grinding it out to perform. We keep getting season best marks and personal records and it shows me that our work in practice is right on target.”
Sophomore Addison Smith won both the 1,600 and 3,200 runs and set a personal best in the latter with a 10:37.62 – knocking off 17 seconds from his previous best.
Junior Brandon Kristensen won the triple jump with a personal best mark of 38-08 and Tyler Baue won the boys 110 hurdles and finished runner-up in the 300 hurdles.
The Wausa boys won the 4x400 relay with members Jaxon Claussen, Josh Wattier, Steel Claussen and Baue.
Morgan Kleinschmit won the girls shot put (34-10.5) with a personal high herself, Abrielle Nelson won the 300 hurdles (50.66, PR),
The Wausa girls won the 4x400 relay with an in-season, best time of 4:34.5. That team consists of Leah Bloomquist, Nelson, Ashlynn Timmerman, and Brooke Kumm.
Bloomquist notes the girls have come out roaring and is especially impressed with how the younger girls have brought plenty of depth and talent to the mix.
“It’s really nice to have them be so consistent and it helps to have strong-willed girls around you,” Bloomquist said. “Our strongest points would be our long-distance runners and our relays.
“We have good long-distance runners in both boys and girls, who also run cross country and have a love for the sport, and they are well conditioned from the fall.”
Bloomquist is confident in the team’s ability to keep improving and the chances for state are definitely there.
“We have the athletes that put in the work,” she said. “It’s crazy to see the talent the boys have with such small numbers.”
The shadow of the COVID-19 pandemic does linger, but not as heavy as it did earlier in the year.
“The only thing I see is that we have a freshmen and sophomore class that had never competed since they were in junior high and that is now beginning to diminish almost completely,” Conn said. “This group of athletes is making their way into the varsity ranks and are putting up marks that have really helped us enjoy the success we are having this season.”
Bloomquist is grateful that the athletic teams at Wausa have had little interruption this year due to the pandemic – at least from their side of the ledger – and now they are entering the homestretch of staying on point to avoid any quarantines.
“It’s kind of crazy like how friends from other towns have been kicked out of school for weeks and had to quarantine and it hasn’t been a part of our lives nearly at all and it’s a 20-minute drive from them,” she said. “It’s crazy how small our world is, and it still hasn’t hit us.
“It hasn’t affected us yet, but we still have to follow the same things everyone has, but sometimes it’s a struggle still.”
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